ABH parent out from bankruptcy

Debt restructuring completed

AUGUSTA - Morris Publishing Group said Tuesday that it has emerged from under bankruptcy protection.

A judge last month approved a prepackaged debt restructuring for the Georgia-based publisher of 13 daily newspapers, including the Athens Banner-Herald.

The company has spent the past year formulating a plan to shed $288.5 million in debt - or about 70 percent of its total of $415 million. The plan allows Morris' owners to keep control of the privately held company.

"Yesterday, we completed our formal debt restructuring, with Morris Publishing emerging with a significantly deleveraged balance sheet," company Chairman William S. Morris III said in a statement.

Under the plan confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court last month, about $278.5 million in bonds and accrued and unpaid interest has been canceled in exchange for $100 million in new secured notes due in 2014, according to Morris.

The newspaper group was founded in the 1940s when William S. Morris Jr. purchased the Augusta Chronicle, where he began working as a bookkeeper in 1929. His grandson, William S. Morris IV, is Morris Publishing's CEO.

The company has daily newspapers in eight states - Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas - as well as more than 60 nondaily newspapers and magazines.

The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville is the company's largest newspaper.